2016 Washington SF - [2] Gael Monfils vs. [7] Alexander Zverev

[Mainad]

Impressive from Monfils but extremely disappointing from Zverev. He had chances to break back in that 1st set which he flunked and then just seems to have given up completely in the 2nd. Not the mark of a future champion.

Monfils is looking the best I have ever seen him. Zverev, on the other hand, shows his age. IMO he's still got a lot of maturing and growing up to do before he can harness his talents to their full potential.

 

[pound cat]

Impressive from Monfils but extremely disappointing from Zverev. He had chances to break back in that 1st set which he flunked and then just seems to have given up completely in the 2nd. Not the mark of a future champion.

Monfils is playing the best I have ever seen him play. Zverev, on the other hand, shows his inexperience.. IMO he's still got a lot of maturing and growing up to do before he can harness his talents to their full potential.

yes he has a lot of learning to do. On the other hand Monfis is on a roll and even an accomplished player would have had trouble beating
him tonight given the way he was playing. Good luck to Ivo tomorrow.

 

[Gary Duane]

Impressive from Monfils but extremely disappointing from Zverev. He had chances to break back in that 1st set which he flunked and then just seems to have given up completely in the 2nd. Not the mark of a future champion.

Monfils is looking the best I have ever seen him. Zverev, on the other hand, shows his age. IMO he's still got a lot of maturing and growing up to do before he can harness his talents to their full potential.

Very disappointed in Zverev today, but I also get the impression that he is a 6'6" guy committed to baseline tennis. I see a long uphill climb for him playing tennis this way with all his height.

 

[Mainad]

yes he has a lot of learning to do. On the other hand Monfis is on a roll and even an accomplished player would have had trouble beating him tonight given the way he was playing.

It's not the losing so much as that he just rolled over in that 2nd set (unless you're going to tell me Monfils suddenly raised his game even further to godlike levels). I was away from the TV just to check on the discussion here for what seemed like only a few minutes and went back to check on the match only to find it finished. I thought at first there must have been another rain-break or something. I couldn't believe the 2nd set had been wrapped up so quickly!

Good luck to Ivo tomorrow.

Good luck to both. They both deserve it in my opinion.

 

[RS92]

First time that I saw a match of Monfils this week (and first time since MC that I saw a match of him), I suppose that someone already mentioned this in the general thread of the washington tournament or maybe in the wimbledon thread a couple of weeks ago... But I noticed that he changed part of his serve motion


Australian Open 2016:

Washington 2016:

Did he already served like that when he played in Wimbledon some weeks ago?

 

[Novak And The Net.]

This is a great match. I'd favor Zverev slightly even though Monfils looks to be rounding into the best form of his career (great hard court stats and Monte Carlo this year.) Zverev had a horrible first return on hard courts in early 2016; 26% of first serve points won. On grass the mighty Z was 32%. Its a bit easier to return on hard courts, and with that Zverev may be ready to explode up near the top ten. Youngest player in the top 30 since Nadal ready to roll.

LOL, drawing your picks based on some random cherry based stats is hilarious. Yeah, Zverev was mightily impressive.

 

[3fees]

Yes , he is using semi step-1/2 step-developed by the Australians-they got it watching ballet, he was using platform for some time, however the real difference in style was he got a haircut-made all the difference. Some peeps call pinpoint as they dont know better or they got hit on the head too many times with the tennis ball at the net.

The other thing is physcial- his biceps are bigger-mo muscle to hit harder.

The point of semi step is once the feet are in close together-the 1/2 step has been done- you rise-like shave cream- on your toes while coming out of the knee bend-extended fully to serve the tennis ball. The auzzie use to do overseas clinics promoting tennis to all with there eyes wide open and awake.

That will $75 each to those who use this and perfect it payable to Australian tennis federation. I paid mine ages ago didnt you ?

Cheers
3Fees

 

[Meles]

LOL, drawing your picks based on some random cherry based stats is hilarious. Yeah, Zverev was mightily impressive.

I do very well with my picks generally thank you (won the last two power play leagues and was oh so close to sweeping the prediction league grass events.) I tend to be a bit more adventurous with my match thread picks, so Zverev in 3.

Zverev and Monfils lead the tournament coming into this match in return games won, so Zverev is bringing his return game from grass to hard courts. I did not expect Monfils to be in top form given his recent time off and quick exit from Wimbledon. Monfils was on for the match and Zverev played and served like crap. (He was tired, I've seen it before at the Nice final; another bagel). Zverev was around top 40 in the hard court stats for 2016. He did make the SF here which is an improvement. Monfils is having a great year and is top 10 in hard court stats for 2016, plus the awesome Monte Carlo run.